ABSTRACT
The Q study in Turkey, based on Q methodology. The study aimed to identify the kinds and characteristics of discourses available in the Turkish public sphere in relation to Islam, democracy and secularism. Q methodology was developed by British physicist/psychologist William Stephenson during the 1930s and afterwards as a technique to examine human subjectivity. Q methodology is distinguished from other statistical techniques such as those used in R methodology because of its concern with patterns of subjective perspectives among individuals as a result of its recognition of the communicability of personal references. According to McKeown and Thomas, methods of expression measure the traits from an external point of view in that the respondent's own point of view on the matter is of little theoretical interest and technical significance. In Q studies the subjects are treated as variables rather than sample elements like a set of items as in the case of R studies.
